Stellenbosch University
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Innovative app making exam access easier
Author: Corporate Communication/Korporatiewe Kommunikasie [Rozanne Engel]
Published: 18/10/2018

​​Exams can be a stressful time for many students. Add to that the time-consuming access procedures at exam locations, when all you want to do is to get your exam paper and start, and those stress levels can soar!

However, thanks to new technology developed by Information Technology at Stellenbosch University (SU), in collaboration with the Examinations Office in the Registrar's Division, the manual and time-consuming process of checking off access lists for students will no longer be the case.

Since June this year, the identification of students for access to exam venues has been facilitated with the use of cell phones at each venue. Tests were first conducted on a small scale during the November 2017 exams and the technology was rolled out fully for the June 2018 exams, which was a resounding success.

Emce Louw, Head of the Examinations Office at SU, is very excited about this new technology and says that many students shared the same sentiments during the June exams. “The process of scanning student cards is fantastic. Students were also very impressed."

How it works

Exam convenors have access to cell phones with the exam access app at each venue. When students arrive at the exam venue, their card is held against the back of the cell phone and the screen indicates whether they are supposed to write that exam in that specific module in that specific venue or not. The screen displays a green mark if the students are at the correct exam venue (see the images below) and a red cross if not. If students are at the wrong venue, the screen indicates where they should be for the exam (or test).

This easier scanning process is made possible by the near-field communications chip on Android phones, which communicates with the MIFARE chip embedded in student cards. The identification information is then used by the phone app to look up the students' exam venue. The exam venue and module information come from the Student Information System.

The development and successful completion of the technology was a cross-functional team effort. Hendrik le Roux from Information Technology's Access Control Division was the project manager and Guzelle Hendricks was responsible for the business analysis of the two three-month phases of the project, which ran from the end of 2017 to June 2018.

In addition to Hendrik's and Guzelle's roles in the project, other SU staff who played a key role in getting the project off the ground included Phillip Greeff, Gregory Isaacs, Anna-Mari du Toit, Marc-Allen Johnson, Jeremy van Rooyen, Charles Hopkins (who wrote the app) and Elmar Matthee (who was responsible for the back-end development). On the side of the functional stakeholders, besides Emce Louw, Neels Fourie (Deputy Registrar), Jan du Toit and Helene Nieuwoudt also participated in the project.

The app will result in access to exam venues being swiftly controlled and will certainly simplify and improve the function of access control with regard to exam venues at the University.